Quote:
Originally Posted by bsnub
Targets guy what do you mean by a floating j?
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In 1971, S&W got weird on us.
In 1969, they terminated the original serial sequence for the J frame guns and started the J prefix series. Near the end of 1970, those numbers reached J99999. In 1971, they started to "float" the J down the line. So, they started with 1J1 and went up to 1J9999, then 2J1 up to 2J9999, then 3J1 and so on. The J "floated" and there were never more than 5 numeric digits in addition to the J.
In 1973, they quit this nonsense and went back to the J at the beginning, followed by six digits. When they hit J999999 in 1982, they put a 1 in front of the J again, but this time there were five digits following the J, for a total of six. So, the 1971-72 numbers are referred to as "floating J" serial numbers.
Note that the 1982-83 numbers are not called floating J numbers because the J was stable and there were six digits total, not five. After 1983, J frame guns got the three-alpha serials like all the other models.
Identify model 36
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Linear Mode
